On Behind the Physics of the Thermoelectricity of Topological Insulators

Abstract

Topological Insulators are the best thermoelectric materials involving a sophisticated physics beyond their solid state and electronic structure. We show that exists a topological contribution to the thermoelectric effect that arise between topological and thermal quantum field theories applied at very low energies. This formalism provides us with a quantized topological mass proportional to the temperature T, being both quantities directly related with an electric potential V and getting a Seebeck coefficient where we identify an anomalous contribution that we associate to the creation of real electron-hole Schwinger's pairs close to the topological bands. Finally, we find a general expression, considering the electronic contribution, for the dimensionless figure of merit of these topological materials, getting a value of 2.73 that is applicable to the Bi$_2$Te$_3$, for which it was reported a value of 2.4, using only the most basic topological numbers (0 or 1).